Growth and yield behaviour of two maize hybrids (Zea mays L.) towards different plant spacing

Abstract

A field experiment to evaluate the effect of different plant spacing on the growth and yield of maize hybrids was conducted at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, during autumn, 2008. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with factorial arrangement having three replications using a net plot size of 6m x 3m. Two hybrids H1 (30 Y 87) and H2 (31 R 88) having density levels S1 (15 cm), S2 (20 cm), S3 (25 cm) and S4 (30 cm) were sown at row spacing of 60 cm. The hybrid 30 Y 87 was early in maturity, produced more number of cobs per plant, more number of grain rows per cob, less number of grains per row and less cob length than the hybrid 31 R 88. Similarly 1000-grain weight, grain yield and straw yield of hybrid H1 (30 Y 87) was significantly greater than the hybrid H2 (31 R 88 Although narrow plant spacing (15, 20 cm) caused substantial reduction in yield components such as grains/cob, number of cobs/plant and 1000-grain weight compared to the wide plant spacing (30 cm) yet it gave the maximum yield (7.69 t ha-1) against the minimum of (5.01 t ha-1) in the latter. The interactive effect of plant population density and hybrids was found to be non-significant in all the parameters under study.